School support staff in the Foothills School Division hit the picket lines this morning.
CUPE Local 5040, representing 300 education support staff, issued 72-hour strike notice late last week after voting in favour of job action earlier this month.
Carla Penhalagan, president of Local 5040, said Alberta has the lowest per-capita education funding in the country.
"We've had enough," Penhalagan said. "Our kids deserve more. We deserve more."
"For a lot of us, it's been over a decade since we've had a meaningful wage increase," she said.
Non-teacher career and technology instructors, data facilitators, educational assistants, learning commons facilitators, office administrators, secretaries and youth development coaches are among the FSD staff that are taking part in the strike.
CUPE members set up picket lines at Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks, Oilfields High School in Diamond Valley and Highwood High School in High River on Monday.
While the strike will not result in schools being closed or any school bus disruptions, there may be a noticeable impact felt due to fewer staff, including special needs students being asked to learn from home and the potential cancellation of field trips.
Eighty-two per cent of CUPE Local 5040 members voted in favour of a strike on Feb. 12.
Striking support staff members in the Foothills join colleagues on picket lines throughout the province.
According to CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill, the strong strike mandate from these groups signals that the Alberta government needs to improve education funding in the upcoming budget, set to be released on Feb. 27.
“We’ve been telling the government that if they don’t address the funding problems in our classrooms, the strikes will expand,” said Gill in a statement. “They did not address the funding problems, and now the strikes will expand."
Gill said his members are tired of poverty-level wages and low funding levels for education.
Foothills School Division superintendent Chris Fuzessy said the division is committed to meeting with the CUPE Local 5040 negotiating team to continue bargaining and to come to a resolution within provincial parameters.
In a letter to all education stakeholders last week, Fuzessy said the division has made plans to deal with the absence of support workers in schools.
"We have assessed the needs and have created plans to best support students and provide continuity of learning. Accordingly, individual students requiring additional support may learn from home during the strike," he wrote.
